Search, Don’t Sort
[2/22/05]
“…people who think for a living are relying more and more on search rather than browse — and eventually personal social networks — to manage the overwhelmingly complex amount
of data that they need to transform daily into information, and ultimately understanding.”
–Jeffrey Veen Think for a living
I assume this essay may be semi-controversial especially for my associates who maintain incredibly detailed folder categories.
My suggestion: get over it!
Categories fail because of several problems, not the least of which is “which category is the right category to file this under?”
Modern search (as well as available CPU power) is so overwhelmingly quick you can search for something as fast or often faster than you’ll
find it figuring out “is it here? or there?”
Some time ago I abandoned ALL topic folders for email at, both at work (where I routinely
process about 200 emails a day) as well as my personal email account.
At WORK… I use a sequence of chronologically
organized folders within Netscape 7.2 [now Thunderbird]. After the current INBOX (and SENT folders) I have a major folder for the YEAR, then an IN and an OUT folder for each month within the year.
At the end of a calender year, there are 24 folders (12 IN, 12 OUT) nested in the YEAR.
Using Netscape search (not great, but adequate), [Thunderbird now ha sEXCELLENT searcing] I can find anything within a given year by searching on my top level YEAR folder. Often I know the month, and whether I am looking for the IN or the OUT, which finds the answer while searching a smaller set.
My (voluminous) NON-WORK email… now lives in Goggle’s FABULOUS Gmail system.
While I own a few domains and still maintain one personal [non-Gmail] email address, ALL
important, must check/read email goes to Gmail.
Gmail’s search is a dream. I don’t even bother to organize mail into year and month folders on Gmail, because there’s no real advantage. The phrase “lightening fast” comes to mind when you experince Gmail searching your online email.
Search, don’t sort. It’s the right thing to do.